How many parking spaces are planned for this 370 unit building?
One can safely assume that if all 370 units get rented, there will be at least 350 cars as some will have none and some will have two cars.
I used to go to the junction all the time, but it much, much less frequently nowadays as it has become harder to find parking.
And Hank, I’m sorry, but in order for me to get to the junction it would take an hour and two busses and I live six, maybe seven miles away.

West Seattle wont be recognizable in 5 years much less in say 10. The amount of building going on here, sheer number of apartments which equal cars all on a finite amount of land will increase pressure on everything: 2 hour free parking in W. seattle? gone. Go out to eat? forget it, packed. Park at the stores? no parking left. Service industry attitude? exhausted, get it and go please. This is going to be like any other crowded European suburb with people piled on top of each other all scrambling for an angle to get in and out without spending all day to do it. West Seattle, we hardly knew ye.

Parking is beyond great here. This building isn’t taking a single “parking space” (this is a gas station, funeral home, and abandoned car lot, not a open parking lot). You still have 3 free parking lots (more than ANY neighborhood in all of Seattle). 4+ pay lots, and all street parking with NO meters. Lord knows folks love to complain on here, but get out of West Seattle and see the rest of the city. We have more and cheaper parking than any place in Seattle of comparable density by a landslide. Try to find 3 free public parking lots and meter free parking in Ballard, Fremont, Capital Hill, Lower Queen Anne.

The character of the neighborhood will change at it grows, that’s fun and sad, exciting and disheartening all at the same time. This used to be forest and log cabins. Then single family homes. We lost our trolly and gained 4 lane roads. People bemoan the loss of the old “Luna Park” but at the time the neighbors thought it was a “den of iniquity” and promoted immoral behavior (dancing and all). We have ALWAYS loved our mythical past more than the actual present, and feared the future.

Uhm, some of you posters do realize that Seattle is a major “City” right? If you don’t like cars, people, buildings, etc. you can easily pack up and move to the Mountains that surround us. Why upset yourself over it?

uhm. Yeah, got it Matt. But anyone in W. Seattle that has lived here for 20+ years – not just a few- will tell you as I will that W. Seattle has changed for the worse. Look up the stats on crime here, i.e. violent crime. Most people who either were born here or moved here liked W. Seattle b/c it was the antithesis of other parts of Seattle or the surrounding “City”. Those days sadly are gone for West Seattle. And you’re right, people can move away and do so, as I’m about to. But to ask why get upset over it, I can answer that with one word: kids. West Seattle is dicey to raise kids and its only to get worse.

One of the things I like most about living in West Seattle is the residential commitment to supporting local businesses. Many local businesses are owned by West Seattle residents. We can’t stop urban development or redevelopment from taking place – no part of the City of Seattle is exempt. The State’s Growth Management Act is in place to protect the natural resources we cherish. The GMA mandates we build additional housing in a smarter fashion. Projects like this help us accommodate the pressure for growth, but concentrates it where it is needed most – near our local businesses and mass transit. Thus, our friendly suburban neighborhood remains in place. I would much rather see these kinds of development than the building of three story “skinny” townhomes packed into what has traditionally been a single family home neighborhood. I can not think of a better location for this kind of development.

West Seattle has NOT changed for the worse. It’s just growing, that’s what cities do, always since the founding of city states in early Mesopotamia. Anytime a store or place changes that YOU liked, it’s worse, but it’s a new good thing and good memories for the people that use that new thing. That’s just your personal feelings of not liking change. YOUR house is sitting in what use to be an old growth forest, do you consider THAT to be “for the worse”? No. You like what YOU have and now want to lock down the city so nothing changes. It’s a totally human response, but it’s not realistic. West Seattle will get more dense. That’s not “worse” or “better”, just different. We’ll have more restaurants, more opportunities, more jobs, more places to live. But more traffic (hopefully mass transit), more crowds, etc. Redmond isn’t better or worse than Capital Hill. Just different. And for CRYING out loud folks, we’re NOT building highrises next to your houses off in the middle of the residential streets, this is on the MAIN biggest major single commercial strip in West Seattle. This is where we SHOULD have growth. Keep in the core, where there’s transit options, away from the single family houses. This is good sensible growth. And to remind everyone, the more density you have the “greener” you are…sprawl is the enemy of the environment. ;-)

I’ve lived in WS for 25 years. And yes, while there have been lots of changes in that time, I would not say that they have all been “for the worse”. I’ll be retiring in about a year, and I ain’t going anywhere.

Can you imagine how much the folks who lived in West Seattle in the 1960’s complained how much it was changing from how it “used to be” in the 1930s….all the roads and businesses coming in, all the noise and people. The more things change, the more they stay the same :)

In response to Alki Area’s problem with people expressing their dismay over West Seattle’s transformation from a reasonable density area to an overcrowded, over built traffic nightmare, public debate is best accomplished when all sides of an issue can express their concerns and have a non-critical debate about them. Any reasonble person would have a concern about the rapid building of primarily apartment dwellings in an area where the infrastructure will not support this rapid increase in population, their cars, or other necessities that are required by this number of additional residents. California Ave has multiple building projects on it, and that road has not and is not planned to be expanded to accommodate increased traffic. California is the primary artery between multiple large single family residential neighborhoods, and the increased traffic will make it more difficult and time consuming to navigate. The Fauntleroy Triangle is already crowded, noisy and experiences heavy traffic on a daily basis. How will adding hundreds more cars and residents help that situation? King County Metro announced recently they intend to cut more service, even though the jewel in their crown – the “Rapid Ride Line C” cannot now adequately accommodate all the riders that seek to take it daily – just ask the riders and they will be happy to tell you how difficult an uncomfortable that ride is. It is mind boggling that the Mayor of Seattle, who is also the Mayor of West Seattle, has no comprehensive plan to develop the city and its needed traffic and utility infrastructure beyond these “design review board” meetings where all developer projects are rubber stamped, no matter what their impact to the community.

Alki Area YOU have LOTS of EMPHATIC points. But its still unmanaged sprawl in an urban evironment that has had little if any thought to the pressure it will undoubtedly have on the finite structure in place currently.

The Department of Planning and Development will pretend to listen, pretend to care and promise to take it all under serious advisement. They will then do nothing and sign off on any and all poor decisions regardless of reasonable and common senses objections. They are the city of Seattle’s equivalent of the Borg. Resistance is futile.

Believe it or not there are actually people in seattle that want density. Not just transplants either, many of the younger people born in seattle have grown tired of seattle being stuck for so long and are excited to see it finally grow into a real city. The crowd that proclaims a single family house on a 5,000 square foot yard is the only acceptable way to live has had a stronghold on this city for about 50 years. Well they are now the minority, a majority of Seattleites now live in multi family buildings. So you can expect to see this slowly change the voting habits of the city. 70% (a ridiculous number) of seattle is zoned single family. Hopefully this can be voted upon and we can get it changed to 70% multifamily and 30% sfh.

Well, pw, I’ve only lived in West Seattle for 14 years, but even with the recent rash of incidents in Highland Park it’s not as bad as it used to be. It has, for instance, been over a decade since I’ve been awakened by a SWAT team urgently desiring to have a word with my neighbors. So, you know, that’s a plus.
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I’m concerned about the infrastructure to support an influx of new residents too, but this city desperately needs more housing. I have friends, people who’ve lived in Seattle longer than I have, who are LEAVING because housing is so expensive that they can no longer afford to live here. That’s fewer customers for local businesses, a smaller potential employee pool for those businesses, and less incentive to start new businesses.
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It’s not like the city has a huge amount of available land to expand into, so the only real option to increase housing is to build more apartments and other multifamily housing.

If the traffic is bad getting in/out of WS currently, Rapid Ride already full, the new wonderful pay-to-use-Tunnel is 1 lane less then if was before they jerked the Viaduct down (tell me that was smart someone to eliminate an entire lane but increase on the other end sheer capacity that needs to use it).Yes, we all do need more housing density in Seattle but there is no way WS can handle that pressure. The math is baked in folks and WS is going to be gridlocked in just a few short years. Work from home or move or mantra “Seattle needs more housing” in your car on WSB every day starting at Safeco. Its going to be brutal folks. Seattle Planning has it all figured out, nothing to see here.

Perhaps some people should talk to Native Americans about how they feel about the “changes” that have taken place over the years. We are where we are. I would have liked to have stayed in my hometown, but alas; it changed. There are no jobs there, lots of drugs and crime. My career took me to this City and I am thankful for it. If things would have never changed back home, I would have never seen the many States/Cities I have seen. I love how people that have never lived anywhere else are always the ones with the most complaints. They are usually the ones that pull out the “if you are new here, you have no opinion”. This is our world. People don’t stay where they were born anymore. Eventually people will even move to other Countries for work. It’s reality. As I say, if buildings and people are your biggest concern, there are many remote locations where one can live as a hermit. Holding onto your “hometown” with hopes that it will always be the way you remember is no way to live one’s life. Trust me, I tried to live that way for many years and all it brought me was sadness.